Big money looking for hot plays on energy

A worker adjusts the valve of an oil pipe at an oil reception and delivery point owned by Bashneft, near Ufa, in Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan.

Sergei Karpukhin | Reuters

Big investors are starting to listen to hedge and private equity fund talk about all the money to be made in energy. But they are yet not moving into the beat-up sector en masse given uncertainty around timing.

Deutsche Bank said that U.S. hedge fund clients like family offices, pensions and endowments are eyeing energy, and that there's been an uptick in requests for meetings with energy-focused managers, including traditional hedge funds and mutual funds that invest in both debt and equity.

"Investors of all types ... are looking at investing in the energy space in 2015," Deutsche Bank wrote in a report for clients.